chocolate beer...

You don't boil the mash - you hold it at a particular temperature in a range from 148-158 or for some as high as 162. You mash to make the wort itself and then you lauter into a kettle and boil it. So you don't boil the mash, you boil the wort.

You said "boil higher", so I thought you were mixing things up. I don't think its possible to boil at a temperature beyond boiling point (at least not in conventional home brewing terms). You either mash higher or boil longer. The former being the more reliable way to produce unfermentables.

 

Earlier (different thread) I said I was thinking about doing the Averagely Perfect Stout as a split batch, with and without crystal malt. Now I'm thinking about a three-way, with a lactose treatment added.

 

That's ridiculously pedantic of you to correct me on that. It was obvious what I meant.

 

Science! Report back.

 

Wow, sorry if I offended.

I don't think it's pendanic at all - We get all levels of brewers in here and I have no idea where you would fit, not to mention that if some beginner came in here, saw your comment and thought it was okay to boil his mash, they'd be in for a surprise. It was really your edit that had me scratching my head again - Boil wort IS "mashing". Say what?

 

FWIW it was not obvious, I was about to correct the statement but @epk beat me to it.

 

Of course. Unfortunately, homebrew is something that currently occupies only spare minutes on the internet, here and there. By the time I have my ducks in a row and am ready to brew again, I imagine others will be reporting on their APA Stout experiences. Those early reports may help develop any stout science I initiate.

 

It is ok to boil a portion of your mash, its called decoction Now, thats how you do pedantic.

 

Most people would refer to heating water to a state of motion "boiling" regardless of whether it is at an exact temperature. Calling out someone on such common usage of the word is something I would only expect from scientists and very anal chefs, but whatever.

 

Careful, some of my best friends are scientists! Anyhow, some on the list look for greater precision in language than others. Don't take it personally, like you were being "called out." In fact you kind of literally (but perhaps rhetorically) asked for when you said "how is that different from what I said."

PS: any real scientists want to correct my use of the term precision - I left that door wide open!

 

Ooooooh - I get it. In this case you are using the word "boil" as synonymous with "heat".

I'm going to tap out of this convo now before I look anymore like an anal scientist jerk.

@barfdiggs - lol, I knew that was coming.

 

Can you repeat that?

 

You should probably stop trying to justify your choice of words and just move on. Going by your definition, heating a frozen sample of water in my hand to thaw it would be considered boiling, which its not. Semantics do matter when talking about things, especially technically oriented or scientific research (I know from experience and constant badgering from thesis advisors).

Boiling occurs when you reach a boil, heating occurs when you're warming something up.

 

FTFY

 

No offense to scientists; they just tend to be sticklers about terminology.

And, barf: Quit being a dick just for the sake. No one calls hand warming ice "boiling". The act of putting liquid in a pot, on the stove, at anything above medium heat, is typically referred to as boiling, even though that is not at the "boiling point", and thus not convert liquid to gas.

Edit: It's stuff like this that gives BA a bad rep. Try being less elitist.

 

Back to chocolate beer, does anyone have thoughts on Sam Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout? My first impression was intense chocolate, but over the course of the bomber, the accompanying sweetness felt pretty cloying to me. Anyone think they know what's going on with that? Is there lactose in there (I know, I saw the graph about lactose and sweetness above), or lots of crystal, or something else?

 

The point that is trying to be made is that if you boil the mash you will denature the enzymes needed for starch conversion to sugar. Terminology is very important in this situation.

Edit: I've never heard of just heating water referred to as boiling. Only water that is boiling called boiling.

 

Wait so you said no offense to scientists for being sticklers about terminology, but then you call me a dick? So which is it, do you want to offend this scientist for "being a dick just for the sake" or accept that I'm a stickler for terminology? I am confused, just as confused as I was when I read this:

Any way, moving on...

It appears the beer is vegan approved on Samuel Smith's website, so it likely doesn't contain lactose, as most vegans would object to sugar prepared on the industrial scale from the by-products of the cheese and casein industries. Unless its synthesized using some kind of weirdo synthetic biology route (the sources I found were from NZ and US dairy industries), there likely isn't lactose in this beer. Unfortunately, it seems Samuel Smith doesn't list ingredients for that specific beer, unlike every other beer on their site.

 

Can I just buy a Chocolate Porter and add quick to it to make it more chocolatey

 

Yes. You can do whatever you want with your beer. That was basically what I suggested in my first post.